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Presuming Damages For Unemployment Distress, Sachin Pandya

Faculty Articles and Papers

A person is illegally fired and, as a result, becomes unemployed for a period of time. If that person wins a lawsuit based on that illegal firing, she can typically recover what she would have earned in wages during that time, as well as reasonable expenses she incurred to search for a new job. Involuntary unemployment, however, also causes people to lose psychological well-being, because they are forced to suffer the experience of being unemployed while they look for a new job. That loss ("unemployment distress") can range in severity from feelings of anxiety and humiliation to severe depression. Accordingly, …